"Evening! Oh put your weapons away, I don't intend to fight you. Need something? All this treasure? Oh it's not mine, you'll have to ask the kobolds and see if they'll share. Be nice, mind you, these guys are well trained to deal with your lot. My hoard? Heh, oh you mean my library, it's further back. Have any favorite books?" -- Anon Guest
Dragons have learned from the greed of Humanity. There's still the compulsion to hoard something, but they very rarely hoard gold and gems any more. There is, somewhere in the vast expanses of Alfarell, a Dragon who hoards macaroni art and jewellery made for them by children.
Kobolds still make offerings of anything shiny, and that is where the misunderstanding arises.
For every Dragon minding their own business, there's some Starter Hero who thinks that a Dragon's hoard is going to solve a lot of their problems. Alas, ferocious Dragons are a thing of ancient legends. The ones that survive are the ones who don't pose a threat to the population. The heroes don't listen to common sense and are inevitably disappointed.
Some flip directly towards curiosity and intrigue.
Such as Lorkem the Valiant, who braved a Dragon's den to find... "Shiny rocks?"
"Mm-hm," said Tilryth the Bright. "Most of them are amethyst and quartz. My neighbours insist on gifting them to me. You may take what they need if they have a use for you and yours. The Kobolds don't mind as long as the pile's roughly the same size."
"Where's... all the gold?"
"We haven't hoarded gold for some ages of time. You're free to look. Come see my library."
Tilryth lead him into a labyrinth of shelves. Some shelves and the books within were Dragon-sized. Most of them were made for middle-sized creatures. Tilryth has a work desk where they copied the smaller books into larger, Dragon-sized editions.
There were even a few people helping with the illumination.
Lorkem stowed his sword and picked up a book at random. He was still there after the sun sank below the horizon. Rapt at the contents of the pages.
One of Tilryth's other students had to actively encourage him to take his rest.
When he rose next, he didn't have armour or a sword at the ready. He did have a voracious appetite for absorbing the written word. Lose a Knight... gain a Wizard.
[Photo by Boudewijn Huysmans on Unsplash]
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